Mansfield Town boss Adam Murray explains Craig Westcarr loan decision

John Lomas

Mansfield Town boss Adam Murray this week explained his decision to allow one of his four strikers, Craig Westcarr, to go out on loan to Southport when Stags are short on goals.

Murray’s men have the second lowest goals for total in the top half of the table, and Murray said: “We are not scoring a lot of goals, but Craig has had 24 appearances and scored three, so would it have made any difference if we’d kept him?

“We needed to shuffle it up a bit to bring a bit more energy into the forward line, maybe a little more pace.

“Craig wasn’t going to feature in the next few games so there was no point in him sitting around with a mopey face, which I understand. If I wasn’t playing I’d be the same.

“He wanted game time so we sent a circular out to all the clubs and Southport came back.

“If I felt at this current time that Craig was going to score five or 10 goals for us obviously I wouldn’t have sent him out. But the pattern shows over 24 games, Craig has been a big part of it, but he’s got four assists and three League goals.

“We have a clause in there that if we need to bring him back for the last stretch, we can do.”

He continued: “No one is stupid. It’s that area in which, as good as the boys have been all round the pitch, we need to be more clinical.

“We just have to keep doing what we are doing and just add that cherry on top. Against the big teams you only get two or three chances and you have to take them.”